Rockingham
castle in Northamptonshire had been built by
William the Conqueror on the site of an ancient fortress commanding the
valley
of the Welland river.It remained a
royal residence for close on five hundred years.However,
despite its admirable hunting
grounds, the castle was not well frequented by England’s monarchs.

In 1530 Edward Watson, a local landowner,
obtained a lease of Rockingham from Henry VIII and set about restoring
what
remained of the Norman castle, converting it into a comfortable Tudor
house.He
had grown rich in wealth and influence through his marriage to Emma
Smith, the niece of William Smith the Bishop of Lincoln and a great
favorite of
Henry VII.His own line extended back to
an earlier Edward Watson who had been living at Lydington in Rutland
county in
1460 and was the father of fifteen children.

Edward’s son, also named Edward, had suspect recusant tendencies
and
even attended the funeral of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587 after her
execution.His grandson Sir Lewis Watson
bought the castle freehold from James I in 1619 in more favorable times.Sir Lewis supported
the Royalist cause in the Civil War and as a result was created Baron
Rockingham.Apart
from a brief period when Roundheads occupied the castle during the
Civil War,
the Watsons have lived there ever since.

Watsons of Saughton

The
lands of Saughton lay within the village of
Corstophine, some three miles outside of Edinburgh.They had been held by the Abbey of
Holyroodhouse until they were divided up among various families in the
16th
century.Richard Watson was the first of
the Watsons there in 1537.

The
Watson line at Saughton extended until 1818 and
James Watson, but no further.His
two
sons were reported killed in the Boer War.

The
mighty oak was the symbol of the
family.Their coat of arms showed two
hands extending out
of clouds gripping a young oak sapling with roots extending.There were five oak trees leading up the lane
to the estate at Saughton.When a school
was built on this estate in 1920 after Saughton House had burned down,
the
children re-planted the five oaks on the road into Broomhill Primary
School.

George Watson and His School

George Watson was born in Edinburgh in 1854, but orphaned at
an early age.Thanks to an aunt, he was
sent at the age of 18 to be educated in book-keeping at Rotterdam.He returned to Edinburgh to be the private
secretary to Sir James Dick in 1676.Based partly on this experience he became one of Scotland’s most
famed
accountants of his time.He was
appointed chief accountant to the Bank of Scotland when it was founded
in
1695.

He died in 1723 a wealthy man.There is a memorial plaque to him in Greyfriars
churchyard.His
fortune was estimated at £12,000, a vast sum in those days.Most of that money was bequeathed to
found a
hospital school for "entertaining and educating the male children and
grandchildren of decayed merchants in Edinburgh.”Its foundation stone was laid in 1738 and
the building was completed early in 1741.

In 1870 the Merchant
Company of Edinburgh was granted powers by Parliament to reform all the
hospital schools under its management.George Watson's Hospital was then remodelled into a day school.It first opened as George Watson's College
that year, with a roll of 1,000 pupils.It still operates on that basis today.

Watsons of Lurgan

The Watson name appeared in the records of Lurgan in
county Armagh as early as 1667.

It was
Robert Watson, born there much later, who was to make his mark on the
town.His linen factory was founded at The Flush, so called after the river
which flowed through the site in 1808.The
factory was sited at the end of Flush Place at the point where the
extended
main street of Lurgan branched in three directions, to Belfast,
Waringstown and
Gilford.It was thus very much at the
road transport hub of the linen industry in the area. It is
considered by many industrial historians to have been one of the
earliest hand
loom factories in Ireland.

Robert
Watson made his home at Lakeview.He
died in 1848 and he was succeeded in the company by his son Francis and
his son
Thomas followed him in turn.
They
were known in the area for the interest they took in their
employees.In 1861 when Shankill Parish
Church was rebuilt, the principal window in the chancel consisting of
three
lights was presented by Francis Watson; and, when a peel of eight bells
was
installed in 1878, the largest subscription of
£200 came from William Watson.

The
Watsons were still living at Lakeview in
the mid 1950’s and their company was
manufacturing fine quality handkerchiefs until the early 1960’s.But then, like others in the area, competition
drove it out of business.The factory
site is now long gone.

Thomas John Watson the
Scotchman

Thomas John Watson was known as “the Scotchman” in
Virginia.Legend has it that he had been
sentenced to be executed for his religious beliefs (he was a
Presbyterian), but
had subsequently been pardoned.It was
also
said that he had come to America in search of a brother who had been an Admiral in the British Navy.

He
made his home at Cherrystone Creek in
Pittsylvania county around the
year 1740 and was one of the very first
European settlers there.Eight
generations of the family have gone by
and the Watsons are still there in what is now the town of Chatham.

Judge Fletcher B. Watson
IV is the present incumbent.He
resides at the Whittle Street Watson home,
on a ridge
above Cherrystone Creek, that was
built in
1894 by the first Fletcher Bangs Watson, a veteran of the Civil
War. Prior to that time the family had lived in the Scotchman's
old homestead.

The Watsons were
instrumental in establishing Methodism in the area. Today's Watson
Memorial
United Methodist Church stands on North Main Street.

The Watson
Brothers in Tasmania

One
of the pioneers of the
shipbuilding industry at Battery Point in Hobart was John Watson. After his arrival in 1833 he began his Tasmanian
career as a shipbuilder in the government yards at Port Arthur.His brother George was also well-known as a
seafarer
in Tasmania’s shipping world.He had
arrived three years earlier at the age of 29 with his wife and two
sons.

John Watson and Captain George Watson – one a
shipbuilder
and the other a ship’s captain - induced young men to build ships and
to take
them to sea. They did this with the convict lads from Point Puer at
Port Arthur
and also with the roughest and toughest of the adult convicts there.

While
John Watson built the Blue Gum Clippers
it was his brother George who navigated them. Their
main business was whaling. Whaling
activities in fact reached their peak
in Hobart in the late 1840’s.

George
Chale Watson, George’s eldest son, left
Tasmania and made his way to Victoria and then to Queensland to fulfill
his
dream of becoming an explorer. Sprinkled
within his journal notes are many references to his boyhood days when
he spent
time onboard boats that visited Tasmania. He
had fond memories of time spent with the sea
captains who enjoyed the hospitality of his family household.